Merry Christmas + An Engagement (Mine)

So, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you…

I got engaged!!!!! Did I not say that yet? It’s honestly so exciting and amazing and wonderful, but it’s kinda awkward to just shout to the Internet, am I right? So now you know. I’m engaged! Andrew and I have been together for over four wonderful years and I was so excited when he asked that I was literally like “Is this for real?” and then we picked out a gorgeous ring together that I’m both obsessed with and also petrified that I will drop onto the subway tracks, so thank god for jewelry insurance and YEAH. It’s awesome. Love is the best.

Andrew and I met about four and a half years ago—on match.com. And before you ask, no, I do not plan to go on the commercials as a success story. I love telling people that we met online though because it was such a fun experience for me all around and it led to meeting the person I love. For those who are nervous about trying online dating, I have to take a moment to encourage you to try it. In the few months before I met Andrew, I went on more dates than I ever had been on in my life, and met some very nice guys who bought me dinner and drinks and were generally interesting or at the very least pleasant. The worst I could say about those fellows was that a few were sort-of boring—although there is one I assume was killed in a tragic accident because he never called me back for a second date.

I also firmly believe that Andrew and I would have never met if not for the internet. I worked in publishing while he worked in property management, I lived on the Upper East Side while he lived in Brooklyn, we didn’t even go out in the same neighborhoods—it just would have been very unlikely. But it only took me about three months of dating on Match to meet Andrew, and we instantly clicked.

Andrew planned our first date, which impressed me because boys are usually terrible at things like that. But he took the time to choose fun, casual spots with lots of interaction, perfect for a first meeting. We started with drinks at a local watering hole in the East Village, then headed to Crif Dogs for seriously amped up hot dogs (try the tsunami dog covered in pineapple and teriyaki sauce, for reals) and finished the night at Ace Bar for a flirty game of darts and skeeball. You know how sometime you just feel completely comfortable around a person immediately? And they make you laugh without even trying? And you leave the night feeling like even though you never stopped talking there are still one thousand things you don’t know about them yet? That’s how I felt with Andrew from day one—and still do.

I could go into a thousand little stories about how our relationship developed: making pizzas at his house, the many ways Andrew tried to impress me on some of our earliest dates always to be thwarted by New York City in some way… But one of the defining moments of our relationship was most definitely our trip to Iceland. We were about three months into our relationship, on the subway taking one of the hour-long trips between my house and his when Andrew casually asked if I’d like to go to Iceland. I was instantly like, “Uhm, are your serious? Heck yes, I want to go to Iceland!” His response: a very excited “Really?” I called my friend Meryl to ask if I was being insane for committing to going on an international vacation with a man I’d known for three months, because seriously that’s what girlfriends are for, and Meryl was like, “It is totally insane. And you should totally do it.”

Iceland was either going to make or break our relationship, and it definitely made it. We had so many adventures driving around the otherworldly little country in our tiny compact rental car. We bathed in the hot springs at the Blue Lagoon while storm clouds rolled in. We let our GPS coerce us into taking a very narrow, very potholed dirt road, considered turning back for the sake of our fragile car but decided to press on only to come upon a herd of roaming ponies moments later, who then let us pet them (true story). We saw more waterfalls and rainbows than I’ve ever seen before. We drove that same intrepid car out onto the black sand beaches, and were nearly stranded there. We explored a glacier.

That trip set the tone for our relationship and some of the qualities we love and bring out in each other: adventure, laughter, encouragement, support. Also, Andrew’s tendency to make ridiculous faces in photographs.

I could go on and on, but I guess I just wanted to share this little snippet from my life. We haven’t set a wedding date yet. I’m honestly still trying to figure out what kind of wedding I want! That may surprise you since I’m a wedding blogger, but I think that actually makes it more difficult for me because I’ve seen so many great ideas and can imagine lots of different wedding scenarios that fit our personalities. I could see our wedding happening in Brooklyn, the Catskills, the coast of Maine—even Iceland! Right now I’m taking the time to enjoy being engaged and we’ll figure out this wedding thing soon.